Trench Warfare In World War One

World War One was a four year war, it started in 1914 and ended in 1918.over 12 countries were involved, for example Belgium, France, Italy and America. WW1 started for many reasons. For instance militarism (building up strong armed forces to prepare for war), Alliances (an agreement between counties to work together to achieve a common goal), imperialism (policy of powerful countries seeking to control the economic and political affairs of weaker or smaller countries) and nationalism (strong feeling of pride, loyalty and protectiveness for ones country. Also Germany wanted control over the world. WW1 was very special though. It was unique for many reasons, like Trench Warfare, propaganda and all of the new weaponry. Trench Warfare was a
Trenches were built to protect yourself from the enemy(s). Trenches were generally around two meters deep and two meters wide. There was three rows. The first row was called the frontline trench. The frontline was the closest to no mans land (the land controlled by neither side of a war), it was also the most dangerous because that was were most of the fighting went on. The second row was called the support trench. It was back-up to the frontline, just in case the enemy got passed. The third and last row was called the reserves. This is were they kept all the supplies and equipment. Also there was communication tunnels connecting the trenches, they were used to transport supplies and messages to the other trenches. Trenches were very unhealthy. Lice, rats and all sorts of vermin occupied the trenches. There was little to no running water, the bathrooms consisted of a bucket in the trench. Also there was dead bodies covering all of the land. Worst of all, there was rats. They would eat dead bodies, or eat out the eyes and live in the bodies of the dead. Rats would nibble the living while they slept or when they were wounded. The other horrible parasite was lice. Lice is hard to get rid of
The most used was the bolt action rifle, it fired 15 rounds a minute at a person 1,400 meters away. The second new weapon was the machine gun. Machine guns needed 4-6 men to work them and it had to be on a flat surface. They had the fire power of 100 guns. There was also large field guns that had a long range and could drive devastating blows to the enemy but they needed up to 12 men to work them. They fired shells that exploded on impact. Next there was gas. The German army were the first to use chlorine gas at the battle of Ypres in 1915. Chlorine gas causes a burning feeling in the throat and you got chest pains. Death is painful, you would suffocate. The problem with chlorine gas is that the weather must be right. If the wind is in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops rather than the enemy. Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells. It is colorless and takes 12 hours to take effect. The effects were: blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding. Death can take up to 5 weeks. In Document Four Henry says “ on top of this, I encountered mustered gas for the first time last week. Fortunately, I had my gas mask ready. The same could not be said for my friend, Heinrich. To see someone die such a death is a horror I will never forget,” Henry saw his friend die from mustered gas. It was a horrible